Sisenand

Illustration of Sisenand at Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid

Sisenand, or Sisinand (Gothic: Sisinanþs), in Spanish, Galician and Portuguese Sisenando (ca. 605 – 12 March 636), was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia (631–636).

Sisenand overthrew Suintila with the aid of Dagobert I, king of the Franks, to whom gothic nobles offered a 500-pound plate made of pure gold, a gift that Aetius gave to Thorismund in 451. He occupied the throne in 631.

He convoked the IV Council of Toledo, which drew up civil and ecclesiastical laws. He succeeded in increasing the power of the king. He had himself confirmed in his election to the kingship and had Suintila declared a tyrant for his many crimes, his iniquity, and his accumulation of wealth at the expense of the poor. He also removed all taxes on the clergy. The council did not concede any hereditary right to the king, however. The king would be elected of the bishops and magnates.

Between 632 and 633, there was a rebellion of a certain Iudila.^[1] Not mentioned in any annals, it is attested to by two coins from Mérida and Granada bearing the inscription IUDILA REX.

Sisenand died in Toledo.

References

Bibliography

• E. A. Thompson. Los godos en España. Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2007 (ISBN 978-84-206-6169-8)
• Luíz Paulo Manuel de Menezes de Mello Vaz de São-Payo, A Herança Genética de Dom Afonso I Henriques (Portugal: Centro de Estudos de História da Família da Universidade Moderna do Porto, Porto, 2002)